Chapter 75: Scam

Pet beast eggs are easy to identify, except for a few that look extremely similar.

The egg in the Treasure Ghost's hand was grey with a yellow tint, and the yellow formed a ring shape — clearly the pet beast inside was the same species as it.

Qiao Sang's heart jolted.

Could it be wanting the Treasure Ghost inside this pet beast egg to become its pet, just like the Yellow Bud Flower Seed earlier?

But she hadn't considered ghost-type pet beasts at all.

Let alone new beast tamers — even some professional beast tamers didn't dare contract ghost-type pet beasts.

Unlike fire-type pet beasts with their explosive tempers.

When fire-type pet beasts got angry, at least they were open about it — you could tell at a glance.

When ghost-type pet beasts got angry, you might not notice on the surface.

But behind the scenes, they showed no mercy when pranking people.

The methods of pranking mainly depended on their abilities.

If it was a Treasure Ghost, things like stealing toilet paper and snatching clothes during a bath were absolutely within its repertoire.

Qiao Sang pretended not to see it and walked past, heading forward.

Seeing this, the Treasure Ghost's grin stretched even wider. It nodded toward a black shadow in the upper right.

The black shadow received the signal, then gestured to two other black shadows, and the three of them flew off in different directions.

Before Qiao Sang had taken two steps, the Treasure Ghost darted in front of her again.

Before Qiao Sang could sidestep it once more, the Treasure Ghost shifted the pet beast egg to its left hand.

Its limbs were very short, with three short fingers on each hand.

The Treasure Ghost held the pet beast egg in its left hand and extended one short finger from its right, waving it in front of Qiao Sang.

Qiao Sang had no idea what it meant.

What was this?

The price of this pet beast egg?

100,000 or 1,000,000?

Just as Qiao Sang was struggling to figure out what it meant, the Treasure Ghost's short finger jabbed hard into the pet beast egg.

Qiao Sang: "…!"

A hole appeared in the pet beast egg, and an unusually short, tiny grey finger poked out from inside. Then the egg gradually cracked open from that hole.

The egg quickly split into two halves, and a miniature Treasure Ghost of about 20 centimeters blinked its eyes, locking gazes with Qiao Sang.

Two seconds later.

"Xun~"

The baby Treasure Ghost spread its arms and called out coquettishly.

Qiao Sang stood frozen on the spot.

It couldn't possibly think she was its mother…

Seeing that Qiao Sang didn't pick it up, the baby Treasure Ghost's mouth puckered in grievance, and tears immediately streamed down.

The Treasure Ghost smiled triumphantly, then its mouth puckered too, and it burst into loud wailing.

"Xun!"

"Xun!"

The people around all looked over.

There, a large and a small Treasure Ghost were weeping bitterly at a young girl.

It was hard not to connect the two of them.

Qiao Sang looked at the two crying Treasure Ghosts — she couldn't leave, but she couldn't stay either.

The baby Treasure Ghost had just been born and hadn't absorbed much nutrition. Its crying was genuine, as if it had suffered some great grievance.

After a while its voice grew much quieter, as if it had no strength left to cry.

On an impulse, Qiao Sang set the Fire Tooth Dog down and picked it up.

Fire Tooth Dog: "…"

The baby Treasure Ghost immediately stopped crying, though tears still kept welling up in its eyes.

The Treasure Ghost was still crying loudly.

Soon, a male staff member with yellow hair walked over and asked: "What's going on?"

The Treasure Ghost floated in front of the staff member, showing him the broken shell while glancing toward Qiao Sang, weeping as it spoke.

"Xun!"

"Xun xun!"

"Xun xun!"

Qiao Sang: "…"

Seeing all this, was there anything still unclear?

This Treasure Ghost was planning to scam her!

For a moment, the baby Treasure Ghost in her arms felt especially hot to hold.

The yellow-haired staff member watched the Treasure Ghost's performance in silence.

He had worked here for three years, and while he couldn't claim to know every pet beast in the base inside out, he knew at least a thing or two about them.

Especially the pet beasts that couldn't be sold and stayed in the base…

Ghost-type pet beasts were expensive and had strange temperaments — very few beast tamers were willing to pay a fortune to contract them.

As the worst-selling pet beasts, they always used every method possible to force beast tamers they took a liking to into contracting them or their kin.

The treasure-hunting ghost in front of her had pulled this trick more than once or twice — every time it would use a pet beast egg that was about to hatch and frame the beast tamer for breaking it.

Most pet beasts decide life and death at a glance — the very first creature they see upon birth, they form an attachment to and take a liking to.

The treasure-hunting ghost was no exception.

This treasure-hunting ghost specifically targeted female beast tamers, because most women were soft-hearted and generally couldn't bear to see a young pet beast crying at them.

If the female beast tamer it ran into happened to have the means to buy it, its scheme really could succeed.

The base was happy to go along with it too — every time this treasure-hunting ghost did this, they would go with the flow and try their best to push the young pet beast off their hands.

After all, if it worked out, it was a win-win.

"Young Lady, could we step outside to talk?" the blond-haired staff member asked.

Seeing more and more people gathering around, Qiao Sang agreed.

The two of them came to an office, where a middle-aged man of about fifty in work clothes was also sitting.

The middle-aged man took one look at the big and small treasure-hunting ghosts and understood everything.

Although both staff members on duty knew perfectly well what was going on, the blond-haired staff member still went through the motions of giving a report.

The middle-aged man gave a dry cough and said: "Young Lady, this pet beast egg has already been reserved by one of our customers. With you doing this, it's hard for us to sell it."

Most beast tamers who bought pet beast eggs did so hoping the pet beast's first sight upon birth would be themselves. Now that the first sight had been someone else, it was indeed easy to be returned.

Qiao Sang understood, but that didn't mean she was going to take responsibility for it.

"You can check the surveillance — it wasn't me who broke the egg. This treasure-hunting ghost deliberately poked it open in front of me." Qiao Sang pointed at the treasure-hunting ghost beside her and said.

"Xun!"

"Xunxun!"

The treasure-hunting ghost shook its head as it explained, wearing a look of being wronged.

The middle-aged man said: "Then let's check the surveillance."

He knew the treasure-hunting ghost had already made thorough preparations.

Sure enough, the three cameras that could capture that area showed the ghostly faces of three ghost-type pet beasts during that time segment.

Qiao Sang turned her head to look at the treasure-hunting ghost beside her, putting on an innocent act.

It even had accomplices?!

"Young Lady, did you come here this time to buy a pet beast?" The middle-aged man didn't bring up the surveillance.

"I'm planning to buy a pet beast egg," Qiao Sang answered.

A hint of delight appeared on the middle-aged man's face, but before he could speak—

Qiao Sang continued: "A Cherry Cottonwood one."

The middle-aged man's expression stalled, and he said sincerely: "Let me tell you something from the heart — ghost-type pet beasts are easier to sell when they're still eggs. Once they've already hatched, it's very hard for us to sell them. Treasure-hunting ghosts are stronger than Cherry Cottonwoods. Look how much the little treasure-hunting ghost in your arms likes you — wouldn't you consider buying a different one?"

That statement was half true, half false — the second half was true, the first half was false.

Ghost-type pet beasts were actually hard to sell even as eggs…

Not only was it a matter of temperament, the price was also a factor.

Ghost-type pet beasts were elusive and very hard to get one's hands on.

Moreover, they were very powerful — only countered by ghost-types themselves and evil-types — so naturally the price was higher than ordinary pet beasts.

But given how hard they were to sell, marking them down was common practice.

It was also true that even after marking them down, hardly any beast tamers wanted to buy them…

Qiao Sang lowered her head for a look.

She saw the little treasure-hunting ghost blinking its big, watery eyes as it gazed steadily at her, as if afraid she would let go.

Qiao Sang's heart gave a tremor.

Illusion, illusion, it's all an illusion…